St. Landry democrat., 1887-01-29

| f11rrlGU NlaIIluttu, III ucE Lille Ill inc
Sick Room" says that inyalids are fort
innate if there is not some intrusive per-
son who needs to be studiously kept at
a distance. But the peril of which I
speak comes not from the intrusive
but from the affectionate and
the conscientious who bring
into the room every conceivable
qualification for kind service except OBJ
servation and tact. The invalid's foes
are they of his or her own household,
or, at any rate, are near friends or kind
neighbors The kinder they are the
worse. unless they are able to show this
| high quality in the right way If they
could only learn to plan their visits on
the basis of Sam WelIer's love-letter.
which was criticised by his father as
rather short. She'll wish there was
more of it, said Sam: land that's the
whole art O. letter-writing For want
of this art, the helpless invalid is hurt
instead of helped; she can not, like
other people, assist the departure of
the guest by pleading an engagement.
or even by rising from the chair; she
must wait until the inconsideratc visit
or is gone. Under such circumstances
she really needs to be saved from her
friends. / remember certain Colonel
in the army who was sometimes sus-
pected of shamming. and of whom his
sub-ot1icers would say. sarcasticallv.
some morning: He is very ill-too
i'll to see his surgeon" There are
really many inyalids who are too i'll tc
see their friends and Sympathizers and
cousins, except with the aid of a three
minute glass, like that by which eggs
are boiled.
But there is difficulty of quality
more serious than that of quantity.
What is there in the outer world from
which it is the hard lot of invalds to be
excluded? Sunshine, fresh air and the
healthy life of mankind. These, then,
are what the visitor should bring. ti~ur-
atively at least, into the sck-room. In
stead of these, how many bring very
pposite-clouds and shadows, and that
which is unWholesome and unhealthy!
They keep the invalid talking about the
very thing she needs to forget-her
own symptoms. They discuss the va
rieties of medicine as topers debate the
merit of different wines; and is dear
Amelia quite sure that it would not be
best to change her physician? Worst
Of all, they tell the distressing symp-
toms of others; the mournful eases, the
bereavements, the approaching funer-
ais. Strange to say, professional
nurses themselves are very much given
to this sort of talk. and would be much
more beneficial companions were they
dumb. Perhaps the visitor chimes in.
and joins with the nurse in melan,-
choly duet. 1t is, take it, almost
impossible for any one in
health to appreciate the hold
that these things take upon an
invalid. The visitor goes away into the
outer air and the very breeze soon car
ries away all memory of the untoward
conversation: but the invalid remains
anchored to one spot, and broods, and
broods, and broods. She is fortunate if
her sleep is not broken that night by
the odious phantoms for which her dear
friend has, with studious care, furnished
the materials.
There are other ways in which
visitor may hurt while intending only
TO help. There are the cross-question-
ers, who make the invalid do all the |
talking; the fingerers, who displace her
drop her orange, and leave |
her glass of water just beyond her
reach; the gazers, who fix their eyes |
scrutinizingly on her, and never take |
them off. But enough has been said to
show that there is way to do every
thing well or ill, and that the art of |
visiting the sick is not one of the things
which are SO absolutely easy as to re-
quire no thought or apprenticeship. 1t
is one of the finest of the fine arts; it |
must have disinterested kindness at the |
and then implies, like all
other forms of good manners, the most
delicate observation, and that prompt
and clear judgment which can neither
be dispensed with nor described. -Har-
3er's Bdzar.